[R] S4 documentation - Was: "exact Wilcoxon signed rank test "

[Dieter Menne]

Torsten Hothorn <Torsten.Hothorn <at> rzmail.uni-erlangen.de> writes:

... 
> indeed, this is the only gap to be filled in `coin', I just haven't had 
> the time to implement this. And of course, `exactRankTests' is still 
> available and will be available in the future. So you _can_ use it!
....
 
Torsten, and R-Coders,

"coin" is really a great step forward, but looking at the documentation of both
"exactRankTest" and "coin" together shows one bad thing about S4 documentation: 

You can't find the important things any more. (not your fault, Torsten)

The functions you are going to need are drowned in a dozen "initialize" and
other stuff that is irrelevant for those who only want to use do the tests. It's
similar in nlme/lme4(currently documented in matrix). Normally I just try
print.xx and plot.xx. When I really have problems with some specialized
versions, I look into the code, because the documentation rarely give the right
answers for special cases.

Therefore, I would like to propose that S4 documentation should be conditionally
made available in an condensed form. Since in C++ code one probably would mark
these secondary functions as "protected", I propose a keyword "protected" in the
.rd files to mark those parts that should only be included in the "full"
documentation.

(For fear of being rip...ed into pieces, going off for vacation now).

Dieter Menne